"There is somewhat of an upside for holiday shopping, since it's so compressed with almost a week less than normal, people are trying aggressively to do these deals that had everybody opening up early," said Cobb. "What little numbers out there from shopping are positive," Cobb added of reports of strong sales and traffic after early Black Friday openings.

"People want to wish this market down, but I don't think it's happening before the end of the year; it might be well into the first quarter before we see a significant pullback," Cobb said.

After climbing to another record close on Wednesday, and rising to an intraday high on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average cleared gains and turned lower, ending at 16,086.41, down 10.92 points, or not quite 0.1 percent.

The stock market closed three hours ahead of usual after being shuttered Thursday for the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

The S&P 500 set an intraday record before clearing gains, losing 1.42 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,805.81. Telecommunications and industrials weighed most heavily among its 10 major industry groups, with technology and consumer discretionary the best performing.

Archer Daniels Midland shares fell after Australia on Friday blocked the takeover bid by the producer of food and feed ingredients for GrainCorp, with the country acquiescing to concerns from grain producers.

The Dow gained 2.6 percent for the month, and 0.1 percent for the week; the S&P 500 rose 1.9 percent in November and nearly 0.1 percent for the week, and the Nasdaq climbed 2.8 percent for the month and 1.9 percent for the week.

All three indices were up for a third month, and the Dow and S&P were both up for an eighth week, the longest such streak for the S&P 500 since January 2004, and since January 2011 for the Dow. The Nasdaq was up for a third week.

"I think there's a realization towards the end of the year that the global economy is better than we thought this summer, that's part of it," said Art Hogan, market strategist at Lazard Capital Markets.

"This is a kind of generational year when you have 20 percent returns across all of the major indices. The flip side of that is how many professionals beat the market bench marks. Some of what you're seeing is performance chasing," Hogan said.

Wal-Mart television melee

CNBC's David Faber reports on a fight over televisions that allegedly broke out among shoppers at a Wal-Mart in North Carolina.

For every three stocks rising, more than four fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 474 million shares traded. Composite volume neared 1.6 billion.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude-oil futures rose more than a dollar to trade under $94.00 a barrel; gold futures rose $12.50, or 1 percent, to $1,250.40 an ounce, its worst November since 1978, when it fell 19.7 percent. Heading for its third consecutive monthly drop, gold is off 10 percent over the past three months.

The dollar declined against the currenciesof major U.S. trading partners, while the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose 1 basis point to 2.75 percent.